Translation
The Japanese word for "Ladybug" is tentou-mushi テントウムシ.
| Romaji | te | n | to | u | mu | shi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiragana | て | ん | と | う | む | し |
| Katakana | テ | ン | ト | ウ | ム | シ |
| Kanji | 天 | 道 | 虫 | |||
| Meaning | Heaven | Path | Bug | |||
| School Level | 小１ | 小２ | 小１ | |||
Trivia
- Despite the name, Ladybugs, also called Ladybirds, are neither Bugs nor Birds nor ladies: they're Beetles, as they belong to the order Coleoptera, and male ladybugs exist too.
- tentou 天道, or tendou 天道, literally "Heaven Path," refers to the path travelled by the heavenly bodies, i.e. the stars, a.k.a. the gods, deities, etc. In Japanese, the "Sun," taiyou 太陽, may also be called otentousama お天道さま. The word tentou also refers to heavenly God and "Supreme Deity" Shàngdì 上帝.[1][2]
- tentou-mushi 紅娘 is a way to write Ladybug in Japanese with the kanji for "red" 紅 and "girl" 娘, meaning more-or-less "red girl." Similarly, Coccinellidae, the scientific name for the Ladybug, comes from the Latin word coccineus, which means "scarlet," a tone of red.[3]
Synonyms
Ladybird, Ladybird Beetle, Lady Beetle.
Scientific name: Coccinellidae.
Beware: some kanji that are difficult to handwrite are easy to type on the computer, which may skew the usage statistics.
Further Reading
- 天道（てんどう）の意味 - dictionary.goo.ne.jp, accessed .
- Shangdi - en.wikipedia.org, accessed .
- coccinellid - en.oxforddictionaries.com, accessed .